As usual, we departed in two waves from the hotel--with the slower riders (that includes me) leaving at 7:00 am and the faster riders at 7:30 a.m. Today I initially headed out solo as I passed some slower riders but didn't see my riding buddies from yesterday. Over the course of an hour I gradually closed in on a solo rider ahead of me, but before I could catch the lone cyclist on the horizon, the paceline caught me, and I rode with them for pretty much the rest of the day.
Our cue sheet said to make sure we stopped at mile 19.0 to see the cowboy statue at the side of the road. If you've ever seen the talking Big Tex at the State Fair in Dallas, you will probably not be impressed by what we saw. But here's the Big Tex in Conlen, TX (a little out of focus):
Our mid-morning sag stop was supposed to be another 10 miles up the road at a Dairy Queen in Stratford, TX but the DQ had been closed. The building was taken over by a BBQ Place. It smelled great...but they wouldn't have anything ready for at least another hour. The owner, however, said that next year he'll have BBQ bags to go...so if you like good BBQ you may want to book this Crossroads Cycling tour for next year!
Unfortunately I have no photos to share of what to several of us was the highlight of the day--the cattle stampede! As we passed a farm/ranch along the road, several of the bulls eyed us and then began running along the fence. They were joined by a calf and soon there were 8 or 10 head of cattle running along trying to show us that our 13 mph pace into the wind was nothing to write home (or write in your blog) about! But I am anyway!
Just like yesterday, there is not a lot to see along US54. Some farmers lease out part of their land for the power companies to erect wind-driven windmills.
While the later part of the morning was spent on smooth paved shoulders, Texas could not let us leave without one last 10 mile stretch of rough "chip seal" pavement. But finally smooth pavement returned as we headed for another state border....this one my 28th state in my quest to ride my bike in all 50 states:
We crossed the border in the appropriately named city of Texhoma, Oklahoma and steadily clicked off the last 20 miles to Guymon. And then at least a dozen of us crossed the street to Round Top Burgers, which recently opened in a building that on the outside looked like an old WWII Quonset hut, but served great burgers and they really hustled to handle the unexpected influx at 2:00 pm. Tonight we have a group Italian dinner at Luigi's, and then tomorrow is a rare day. Only 39 miles to Liberal, Kansas. So it will be a later start (hooray!) and they'll let us know tonight how much extra sleep we can count on.
As usual, here are my Garmin and Strava data and the Relive video:
To those of you who have posted a comment, I'd like to respond, but there seems to be a problem that when I try to log into respond something gets lost in the "translation" between my laptop and the blogger software. So I can't add my own comments. Therefore, in tomorrow's post, I'll respond to everyone's comments thus far. (Technology is great when it works!)
Finally, to my good friend Paul Meinke who is today near the end of his Mississippi River bicycle tour with America By Bicycle, and as a kid growing up in Rock Island, Illinois became a fan of the hometown Rock Island Railroad, you should know that the "Rock" is alive and well along US54. Disguised as the Union Pacific, for the last two days (and again tomorrow) we have seen a string of automotive trains, container trains, grain trains and even a general merchandise train. And when our pace group waves, about half of the engineers toot their horns back at us. Long live the Rock, Paul.
Until tomorrow when we have the shortest day of the tour,
Bruce
That cow stampede seems pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteKeep them doggies movin, Rawhide!
ReplyDeleteDon
Yee hah! Get along little buckeroos! I sure wish I could have gotten some shots of the Great Crossroads Cycling Cattle Drive!
ReplyDelete